McLane Co. paid $26,853 per acre, or a total of $2.4 million, for the 88 acres south of Hancock County 212, on which it will build a $38 million grocery distribution center.
McLane on Friday temporarily transferred ownership of the construction site to the Blanchard Valley Port Authority. That move will enable it to avoid more than $750,000 in sales taxes. Government bodies like the port authority do not pay sales tax. So sales tax will not be levied on construction materials for McLane’s $38 million, 337,831-square-foot distribution center, to open in 2016 across from Lowe’s Distribution Center.
The distribution center will eventually employ 425 at an average wage of $57,000 per year.
McLane will pay for construction of the building.
Then it will lease the building for at least five years before buying it for $5,000 under a deal approved Tuesday by the port authority board. McLane is paying the port authority $100,000 for its role in the tax avoidance.
McLane bought the 88 acres from George and Camille Ranzau.